In our blog post from last July titled “Get Up and Move!”, we talked about the benefits of moving throughout the day rather than just the 45 minutes to 1 hour you spend doing a formal workout. If you missed that post, you should definitely check it out, but the main benefits of moving every hour are decreased risk of heart disease and type II diabetes, decreased joint and muscle stiffness, and increased creativity. In this post I wanted to share a personal benefit that I experienced and give some examples of movement to do throughout the day.
Decreased risk of heart disease, diabetes and stiffness are all great reasons to move throughout the day, but those aren’t benefits that you feel immediately. Being the impatient humans that a lot of us are, we like to see immediate results so that we know something is working. When it comes to most aspects of our health and fitness, we don’t see immediate results which can be frustrating. However, one benefit that I have personally noticed immediately after movement is a boost of energy. It’s more widely known that increased energy is a benefit of exercise, but maybe less known is the energy boost you can get from these short movements during the day, such as a 5-10 minute walk, dancing around your living room, a more active stretch, or anything that gets you moving for a few minutes!
If you feel like you’re dragging a little in the afternoon, try adding in a little movement and see if it helps. Take a few laps around the building, come into the gym to get on the treadmill, bike or elliptical for a few minutes, or come join Michelle and Jill for a 15 minute Dance Break on Tuesdays starting the end of this month! We’re turning up the music and freestyling it. No choreography and no skills are required, just 15 minutes of energy boosting fun!
